Yew
by Lady Lianna Kari
Summary: One shot. A series of encounters between Gryffindor's favorite golden boy and the incarnation of one of the darkest Wizards of the millenium.


Disclaimer: Harry Potter Books are the intellectual and financial property of J.K. Rowling. Dragonball Z Manga is the intellectual and financial property of Akira Toriyana I receive no financial compensation for writing FAN FICTION. I merely get the pleasure of playing in their worlds, and you get the pleasure..or displeasure…of reading the result.

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Yew

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A gust of autumn wind shirled around Riddle mansion. A single, pale-faced, attractive child with handsome chestnut locks was busying himself in the front gardens. So much had changed in the town of Little Hangleton over the years.

"Hello, Tom," a soft tenor voice solicited quietly.

The child looked up. The sparkling eyes betrayed what his stoic face did not. "Uncle Harry," Tom Marvolo Riddle Son stood in the man's presence. The thirty-something man with untidy black hair and almond-shaped emerald eyes knelt facing the child, pushing on the bridge of his nose as if adjusting glasses that were conspicously absent.

The emerald eyes sparkled mischief as he held out a packaged object. "Thought you might like this," Harry whispered conspiratorially.

Tom took the package with trembling fingers and unwrapped it. Harry Potter was thrown back unexpectedly as he suddenly found his arms full of child.

"Tom…ease off…your strangling poor Uncle Harry," Harry wheezed. The boy let go, blushing furously and mumbling apologies. To his shock, Tom found himself scooped up from the ground and facing his captor. He blushed deeper.

"I'm not a baby," he grumbled half-heartedly.

Harry chuckled. "Never said you were, Tom. Where's your trouble-making parents?"

The child fidgeted with his captor's silver buttons. "They are in the back, entertaining some guests. Aunt Chi-Chi and Uncle Goku are here."

Uncle Harry grinned broadly. "Well, let's go say hello, shall we?"

Tom groaned and buried his face in the man's neck. Tom didn't hate Goku or Chi-Chi. He just found Goku's enthusiastic personality mildly annoying and Chi-Chi's doting ways irritating. Tom had spent his formative years in a dreary orphanage. He had neither been cuddled nor appreciated in any way when his parents, Hermione and Gohan, and his Uncle Harry had come for him two years earlier.

"_Line up, children! We have visitors," the matron called down the dormatory halls. Lines of boys and girls filled each side of the hall, most with a hopeful look on their faces. Tom's face bore no such look. He had learned a long time ago that his presence were neither needed nor wanted. He chose to examine the people quietly._

_All of them, even though they appeared harmless enough, spoke of a wealth of power as they strode past the lines of orphans. Suddenly, the one with spiky hair and sharp, onyx eyes stopped in front of a girl with chestnut hair and blue eyes._

"_What's your name?" The man asked cheerfully._

"_Promise," the child murmured. The man turned toward his male companion, a male with untidy black hair and emerald eyes. Seemingly coming to some sort of nonverbal understanding, the latter nodded and eyed the child, as to make a note of her. The three continued the same all the way down the hall until they came toward the end. The one with almond shaped bright green eyes stopped as he spotted Tom. Tom squirmed. No one had ever looked that way at him before._

"_Gohan, it's him. He's here, just like Goku said," the man said quietly. The one called Gohan approached Tom with a smile. Tom eyed him suspiciously._

_Gohan knelt. "Hello, there. What's your name?"_

_Tom fixed his own scrutinizing scowl into a mask. "Good afternoon, sir. My name is Tom Riddle."_

_He heard a gasp come from the woman and looked at her. She had light brown hair with warm, chocolate-colored eyes, but her ears were what so subtly remarkable. They gracefully arched into a squared point in the the back. Tom blinked._

_She smiled encouragingly. "What's your middle name, Tom?" She inquired softly._

"_Marvolo," Tom replied proudly, ignoring the pink tinge in his cheeks and the soft sniggers of his peers._

_She nodded in a satisfied manner, Tom noted. __**It's as if they were looking for me, **__he mused to himself._

By the end of the day, five orphans had found a new home, and Tom had been one of them. Tom, never knowing affection or love in his entire life, remained suspicious of it all for a long time. That day, he discovered that there were two worlds, the normal world that some called muggle, and the other world, the world where secrets and mystery lay, the world of magic and ki. Tom discovered that the worlds sometimes overlapped when necessary—

"Tom!" A voice interrupted his musings. This time, Tom couldn't hide the eagerness that crossed his features. His head turned from his hiding place, Harry's neck, his lips twitching.

"Piconot-parrai, Katatsu-san," Tom intoned, regarding the small Namek with a slowly waxing grin. Uncle Harry sat him down gently, Tom striding purposefully toward the slightly shorter, green-pallored childe.

Harry smiled as he watched the young ones playing in the garden, his arms folded over his chest. _**"((Who would have thought it, Namekian childeren playing with the incarnation of one of the darkest wizards of the twentieth century.))"**_ He said in Nameki, turning his face upward and smirked as a green-pallored figure landed gracefully next to him.

"_**((Perhaps Goku was right then,))"**_ Piccolo mused aloud as his eyes shone in pride, calmly regarding the group of childe-lings. _**"((Happy birthday, Harry.))"**_

The other man smirked. _**"((Your son has grown into a fine young Namek, Piccolo. Willing to befriend Tom, despite sensing his dark young soul.))"**_

"_**((That soul is turning, Mr Potter. It's amazing a difference two years can make, with the right influence.))"**_

Harry nodded as he smiled, perfectly content. _**"((It's been a good birthday.))"**_

…

A MONTH LATER:

"So, _Not-_Tom. Eager to go to Hogwarts?" Harry smirked at the calm child whose eagerness wasn't quite hidden behind his sparkling, dark eyes. After a while of the boy scowling and scorning his name, everyone had taken to calling him Not-Tom. Harry had started it.

"_Tom, you ready to fly to Diagon Alley?"_

"_Not Tom," the boy muttered._

"_Excuse me?"_

"_Not Tom. I hate that name!" The boy said hotly._

_Harry Potter frowned. Then, he smirked. "Very well. Not-Tom it is."_

_Not_-Tom gave a small smile as he looked up at his mentor. Harry Potter had taught him so many things. Taught him how sense and use ki…taught him how to fight and fly. "Yes, Harry. I'm quite ready. I just hope—" Not-Tom averted his eyes and looked away.

"What's wrong, Not-Tom?" Harry frowned in concern.

"I can't…you…you won't like me anymore," Not-Tom's brow deepened.

Harry knelt and cupped the child's face. "You're having bad dreams, Not-Tom?"

Not-Tom's eyes widened. "How—"

"They are just dreams, Not-Tom. Nothing more."

"But…I killed you," Tom whispered, mortified.

Harry's eyes widened for a fragment of time before he schooled his expression. He sighed. "No, Not-Tom. You didn't. _He _did. Voldemort killed me. You're not _him_. Besides, you have something he never had, neither did he understand. The reason I'm still alive, despite the fact that he killed me."

"What?" The child asked, unable to quelch his curiosity.

"Love, Not-Tom."

A brow rose of the child's pale forehead as Not-Tom regarded his mentor skeptically. Harry smirked as he recalled his own doubt of Albus Dumbledore's words. "Do you think you are Voldemort, Not-Tom? You think you would kill me if you could, right now?"

Not-Tom's eyes widened in horror. "NO!" He yelled, then winced.

"Why not?" Harry asked calmly.

"Because, I lo…you're trying to trick me," The boy growled, glaring at his mentor.

Harry smirked, knowing why the child had cut off mid sentence. "Now why would I do such a thing, Not-Tom?" Harry stood; reaching into his pocket, he drew out a wand Not-Tom recognized for some reason, not because Harry had ever used it, but for some other reason he couldn't place. "Yew. Thirteen and a half inches. The core is phoenix feather. This wand is twin to mine," he held it out to the bewildered young wizard. "Take it, Not-Tom."

Not-Tom gripped the handle and gasped as warmth spread to his fingers. He waved it, and red, gold, and silver sparks shot from the tip. He looked up in time to see his mentor walking away from him.

Harry grinned mischeviously as he spoke over his shoulder. "Oh and Not-Tom, I love you, too."

Not-Tom blinked stupidly at the man's back, trying to ignore the warm, happy feeling that was filling his chest.

…

"Son, Tom," Professor McGonagall called.

Not-Tom strode calmly to the stool and placed the Sorting Hat on his head.

_Mmm. Interesting. Very interesting. I feel as though I've sorted you before, but I can't seem to place it. You're very talented, cunning and brave. And what's this? I sense a particularly strong sense of loyalty to someone here, hmmm._

_I don't want to be anything like him, Not-_Tom mused. _Not Slytherin…_

The sorting hat chuckled in his ear. _Is that the only reason you don't want to be in Slytherin, child? You could be great, you know. It's all here in your head. And just because you are in Slytherin doesn't mean you have to be a dark wizard. In fact, the majority of Slytherins turn out—_

_Please, anything but Slytherin, anything but Slytherin—_

_Really? Well, if you're sure. Better be—_


End file.
